Wake-Up Weather: Cold and windy today, colder with a chance of sleet or ice by Friday

Your sunrise summary of everything you need to know about weather in H-town.

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Very windy through the afternoon hours, with highs struggling to rise into the low 60s.

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It’s quite breezy this morning in the wake of a front, and the entire Houston metro area lies under a red flag warning through 3 p.m. this afternoon.

Such a warning indicates optimal conditions for fires, as in addition to the high winds the air moving into Houston is very dry, and there’s lots of dead vegetation due to the cold snap earlier this month.

Temperatures today will only warm into the low 60s, under sunny skies, and overnight lows will likely fall to freezing north of downtown.

There’s also a chance of rain with this front, but the big question is whether any rain that does develop will end before temperatures fall below freezing late Thursday and early Friday. If the precipitation does hang around there’s a chance of freezing rain, ice pellets or possibly even snow through Friday morning.